One San Diego firefighter who was seriously injured in a vehicle crash near the Texas-Louisiana border while on a support mission for those endangered by Hurricane Helene over the weekend has been released from the hospital, officials said Tuesday.
Capt. Greg Davies, who joined the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department in 2009, was able to leave the hospital, according to the SDFD. Davies has been a member of CA-TF8 since 2017 and is the planning team manager.
Two others that are injured — SDFD Battalion Chief Aide Barbat and Capt. Jesse Schultz — could have a long journey ahead. Those two crew members are being treated at Shreveport LSU Hospital.
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The crash that injured three members of the fire department occurred around 12:45 a.m. Sunday near Interstate 20 and Highway 80 near the border of Texas and Louisiana, according to a statement from the city of San Diego and the SDFD. San Diego firefighters were on I-20 when the crash happened, according to Mónica Muñoz with the SDFD.
The San Diego firefighters involved in the crash were members of the department's Urban Search & Rescue California Task Force 8 and were part of a 48-person team headed to North Carolina in an F-350 truck to assist in relief efforts. The three injured were one battalion chief and two captains.
They were flown by air ambulance to Louisiana State University Hospital in Shreveport. All of their conditions ranged from moderate to critical after the crash.
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The circumstances surrounding the crash were not immediately clear.
San Diego Fire-Rescue is sending resources to Louisiana to help the people that are injured and other team members that are emotionally impacted by the crash.
"We respond to earthquakes, floods, hurricanes — any type of natural disaster where the local resources are going to be overloaded," Muñoz said.
Only the strongest among us answer the call of duty to help others.
"This task force responded to Katrina. They responded to 9/11. I know most recently, since I've been in this position, Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Harvey," Muñoz said.
The San Diego community is now mustering up the strength to help the three injured firefighters.
"We were able to send six peer support team members to the incident via airplane right away, as well as two chaplain members from our chaplain program," said David Hunt, SDFD cancer and health coordinator. "It's proven that when you're able to have that peer support and conduct these debriefings or critical incident stress managements after incidents like this or whatever traumatic event it may be that, scientifically, it processes that in your mind and helps relieve that stress from your body."
The other 45 members of the team are receiving support services as well. According to Muñoz, they are at a hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana, and are still in a 72-hour hold status. She says the team will likely not continue on to the help in the hurricane relief efforts, but a final decision has not been made.
When asked if this incident will impact San Diego Fire-Rescue operations in San Diego, Muñoz said: "We have fortunately have backfilled firefighters, so there were 32 members of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department that made up that 48-person team, so the people that have vacated their positions here to be on that special team have been backfilled by other firefighters."
SDFD Chief Robert Logan and Deputy Chief Steve Lozano are with the injured firefighters as support in their recovery process.
